Salons, Singers and Songs: A Background to Romantic French Song, 1830-1870 by DavidTunleyReview by: James William SobaskieNotes, Second Series, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Jun., 2003), pp. 909-910Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27669803 .

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Book Reviews 909

hidden by the march of time or by the walls

that separate artistic media. Thus an or

ganum by P?rotin is likened to the improvi sations of John Coltrane and Omette

Coleman (p. 12) and in a moment from

Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Machaut is

heard (p. 262). Bracketing a composer and a writer, Meilers finds Edward Elgar and Rudyard Kipling to be twins of a sort

(p. 174). Similarly, he sees Olivier Messiaen

creating a tonal perspective analogous to

the visual perspective employed by

Hieronymus Bosch (p. 235). Yet whereas Celestial Music? occasionally

discovers subtle parallels, it is dichotomous

thinking that permeates the volume. It op erates on the highest thematic levels where, for example, humanism is set against reli

giousness, and it is behind countless state

ments such as "Brahms's trigger to creation was a duality between . . . romantic spon

taneity and a rage for order" (p. 164). Antitheses also emerge amid the musical

analyses, as when a "God-fugue" is described as balancing a "man-fugue" (pp. 262-64).

Furthermore, other forms of categorical

conceptualization are spread throughout the book, fostering such epigrammatic

phrases as: "Schubert was a composer of

Friendship as Bach was a composer of the

Church and Handel a composer of the

State" (p. 125). The prevailing orderliness, realized in arresting and flexible prose,

helps to govern Meilers's far-reaching and

diverse subject matter. For this reason

among many, Celestial Music? is a remark

able book, in which the author has skillfully marshaled his keen knowledge of how

music works and put it at the service of ever

venturesome ideas.

Christopher Hatch

Dorset, Vermont

Salons, Singers and Songs: A Back

ground to Romantic French Song, 1830-1870. By David Tunley. Alder

shot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2002.

[xii, 283 p. ISBN 0-754-60491-8.

$79.95.] Music examples, bibliogra

phy, index.

Few aspects of French cultural life have

been as misunderstood or maligned as the

salons. Today, the expression "salon music"

carries connotations of superficiality and

sentimentality, while that of "salon com

poser" serves as a slight, if not an outright insult. Yet these epithets are more than

demeaning?they perpetuate the myth that

salons were just elitist entertainments

where innocuous trifles accompanied pleas ant conversation.

Fortunately, this inequity is being re

dressed. C?cile Tardif ("Faur? and the

Salons," in Regarding Faur?, ed. Tom

Gordon [Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach,

1999], 1-14) andjeanice Brooks ("Nadia

Boulanger and the Salon of the Princesse

de Polignac," in Journal of the American

Musicological Society 46 [1993]: 415-68),

among others, have demonstrated that the

late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Parisian gatherings fostered some of the

era's most distinguished music and artists.

Of course, not all of the pieces played or

sung at the salons had such high aspira tions. But failure to distinguish between

high art and divertissement is to be both

unfair and ignorant of the facts.

While we now have a better grasp of its

relatively recent past, salon culture of the

mid-nineteenth century remains rather

nebulous. Although further removed, this

social scene still matters much, as it set the

stage for the later artistic efflorescence and

fostered much creativity of its own, particu

larly in the form of the romance. Indeed, not since Frits Noske's French Song from Berlioz to Duparc, 2d ed. (trans. Rita Benton

[New York: Dover, 1970]) has the vocal mu

sic of that period attracted much serious

scholarship. Thus, David Tunley's Salons, Singers and

Songs: A Background to Romantic French Song, 1830-1870 offers welcome illumination of a

hazily known age. Complementing the au

thor's facsimile anthology of the epoch's vocal literature (Romantic French Song with

Translations and Commentaries, 6 vols. [New York: Garland, 1994-95]), this book offers

essential historical, social, and aesthetic

context for understanding that elegant and

musically enthusiastic period. Nine chapters, each a self-contained essay,

constitute its substance. Chapter 1, "Musical

Paris," portrays the French capitol in the

1830s, when music was, in the quoted words

of Jules Janin, "the great pleasure of this

city" (p. 1). In addition to opera and theater, Parisians enjoyed several professional

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910 Notes, June 2003

orchestral and choral concert series, count

less public chamber and solo recitals, nu

merous performances by amateur music so

cieties, plus burgeoning music education

and publishing sectors. As Tunley suggests, this preoccupation with music could not

help but spill over into the salon tradition, which had begun to revive during the

Restoration. While diaries, letters, and

memoirs provide essential information, the

author draws heavily on newspaper articles, a surprising number of which report on os

tensibly "private" events.

"The Salons and Their Music" begins with a survey of four Parisian quartiers in

which musical salons were concentrated, each of which drew different cliques.

Glimpses of specific salons appear next, as

do vignettes of their organizers, the most

notable of whom were women. The third

chapter, "Singers in the Salons," provides

portraits of several singers associated with

the salons, including Manual Garcia, his

daughters Maria Malibran and Pauline

Viardot, and Adolphe Nourrit, who intro

duced Paris to the songs of Schubert. Most

valuable are contemporary descriptions of

their singing styles and techniques, which

effectively distinguish the salon voice from

the operatic. The four following chapters form the core

of the book. "The All-Pervasive Romance,"

presents a close examination of the genre most associated with mid-nineteenth-century

salons, delving into its various subtypes, the

tyroliennes, barcarolles, pastorales, orientales, and nocturnes. "Romance and Romanticism"

reveals the influence wielded by authors

Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine, and

Alfred de Musset, as well as musicians Hip

polyte Monpou, F?licien David, Hector

Berlioz, and Louis Niedermeyer, which

deepened the romance's range of expres sion. "Paris Discovers the Songs of Schu

bert" explores the impact that Schubert's

Heder had on French composers and per formers, while "Romance into M?lodie"

investigates the emergence of the vocal

form which would surpass its popular pre decessor. Both of these chapters seem a bit

brief, but they certainly open new avenues

of inquiry.

Chapter 8, "Reaching out to Full Bloom"

offers a survey of transitional figures in the

history of romantic French song, including Victor Mass?, Ernst Reyer, Edouard Lalo,

Camille Saint-Sa?ns, Georges Bizet, and

Jules Massenet. Finally, the book's "Post

script" recounts historical facts leading up to the Franco-Prussian war and its after

math, whose tragic circumstances would

initiate an extraordinary resurgence of

nationalism and a musical renaissance of

unprecedented proportions. Salons, Singers and Songs features an intro

duction, eighteen musical examples, a bib

liography, and an index. Copious foot

notes, which include numerous original French passages cited or translated in the

text, augment each chapter. In addition, there are five appendixes, accounting for a

total of 132 pages! The largest of these, ap

pendix A, consists of a list of several hun

dred private salon recitals that took place in Paris from 1834 to 1870, gathered from

articles in Revue et gazette musicale, Le

Menestral, and Le Monde musical, and pre sents available information regarding the

participating singers and their repertoire.

Appendix B provides detailed data regard

ing Schubert lieder published in French

translation by the firm of Richault from

1828 to 1840. Appendix C offers extracts

from Antoine Romagnesi's L'Art de chanter

les romances, les chansonnettes et les nocturnes et

g?n?ralement toute la musique de salon . . .

(Paris: chez l'auteur, 1846), while appendix D reprints "L? Premi?re romance from L'Echo

musical (1 September 1839). Both include

English translations. Finally, appendix E

presents an extract from Jules Janin's The

American in Paris (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans; New York:

Appleton, 1843). While some might ques tion the inclusion of so much supplemen tary material, particularly that of appendix

A, there can be little doubt that the dearth

of readily accessible documentation has

hindered the development of a good image of mid-nineteenth-century salons.

Salons, Singers and Songs: A Background to

Romantic French Song, 1830-1870 enhances our understanding of a vital milieu and its

vocal music. David Tunley deserves thanks

for his advocacy of this overlooked domain, and Ashgate earns accolades for champi

oning French music.

James William Sobaskie

University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

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